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70 Corporations Come Out Against Defense of Marriage Act

Posted by on Nov 4, 2011 in News | 15 comments

With the holidays right around the corner, you might want to practice some conscious consumerism. Here is a great place to start – recently 70 large corporate entities joined forces with Human Rights Campaign to speak out against the oppressive and archaic law that is called The Defense of Marriage Act.

These companies include Nike, Google, Levi Strauss & Co., Microsoft, Kimpton Hotel Group, Starbucks and Zipcar. The 70 companies filed a brief in federal court highlighting the damages to American companies caused by DOMA.

House Speaker John Boehner is a total DOMA fanboy, blowing over 500k defending the bill.

For those of you who want the nitty gritty on DOMA, DOMA prevents any of the over 1,100 federal rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage from being afforded to legally married same-sex couples.  These include Social Security survivor benefits, federal employee health benefits for spouses, protections against spouses losing their homes in cases of severe medical emergencies, the right to sponsor a foreign born partner for immigration, the guarantee of family and medical leave and the ability to file joint tax returns, among many others.

According to a poll taken last year, 51 percent of voters oppose DOMA while only 34 percent favor it.

(Via HRC)